Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon; it belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansha, and Pioneer Films. Mononoke-hime is a production of Studio Ghibli. Sailor Sirius is my own personal character who I have put time and work into to. Steal or copy her and I shall hurt you. This story is mine and mine alone, using characters of that I did not create.

 

Prologue


Thousands of years ago, when Japan was still pure; great forests were being demolished for the Revolution of mankind. Ancient gods still lived, but were being forgotten and killed. The mystic metal, iron, was being mined and many thrived off the metal. One great forest still remained, the forest where Mononoke-hime dwelled. She killed and fought off humans so her home would remain pure, but the Lady of Iron Town knew the weakness of all ancients, gods, and spirits. Iron.
The human's only weapon against gods. The only thing that could protect them from the power of the great forest. Some gods who were killed by the mystic metal lived. They lived as the walking dead. Demons. Spreading the virus of hate and eyes that have been clouded by greed and insanity. The demons killed all who stood in their rampaging path. If any mortal touched the demon's flesh, they would instantly be intoxicated by a flesh eating disease and slowly die as a mark spread throughout their body.
Usually ancient gods always live in the hearts of all who believe and fear them. But their legacy can come to end. If they are put to death by anyone who can wield the metal. Iron. Iron, the god killer.

Many of you know the tale of Mononoke-hime, the Princess of the Wolves. Many people think that they know the tale of the Princess. A deceitful woman who feeds on the souls of men. A human born to Moro, the wolf god. A changeling, who drinks the blood of babies. Those are some of the rumors that fall around the human of the Wolf Clan. Yet there is always a story that bears the truth. Even though belief can sometimes be more powerful than the truth, the light of purity always shines clear for the ones who seek the story behind the Legend.

Is there time for one to learn the ancient ways?
A warrior of the future should know the battles of the past.
Especially one who must live for many years.
A warrior of an ancient bloodline must see a battle that has changed the future.
She must know and observe, but the figures she watches should not see her.
No matter how hard she tries, she is one who shall watch.
She must know and become a Living Legend of the Past, Present, and Future.

Chapter 1


"Tsuta-chan!" Tomoe Hotaru called her friend.
Sei Tsuta was daydreaming of a nice cool pool where she was swimming and cold refreshments were waiting for her as soon as she was out of the pool. Hotaru scowled and once more called her friend's name.
"TSUTA!"
"Huh, what?" She woke from her daydream and returned to the reality known as Japan. To be precise, she was at an archeological site in 35ºC soon to be 40ºC. She only came to the dig, because it not only got her out of her summer studying program, but she also got to stay and actually take part in the restoration of the Emishi village. At least her friend Hotaru was with her, so both of them suffered from the heat wave and the tour group, with a tour guide, who seemed to like to hear the sound of his voice.
"Now here we see an ancient hut, which was once the home to an Emishi family. Inside we discovered some pots, the remains of a fire pit, clothing, and stores of food. As I have said before, the amazing thing about this village is that the carbon dating test shows that the people are 500 years younger than skeletons of other Emishi people. As you know they were killed because the ancient Japanese wanted to be rid of Japan's first inhabitants. Now let's go see the blah blah blah blah blah..."
The tour guide walked away followed by tourists and bored kids whose parents forced them to come on an educational trip. Hotaru dragged Tsuta along making sure that the Senshi of the Stars didn't run away from the group. Fifteen minutes dragged by, all Tsuta could hear from the tour guide was "Blah blah blah blah blah..." She was about to strangle the guide, when he finally said something interesting.
"Recently our crew has unearthed the skeleton of a giant boar. The boar seemed to be buried in a grave. Along with the skeleton were prayers written on a fine white cloth, which remarkably has been preserved for all these years. The boar may have been worshiped as a god and out of respect for his death the Emishi buried him."
A little boy gawked at the huge skeleton; his eyes were round with excitement. Carefully he lifted the ropes that surrounded the excavation site and he tiptoed to the giant skeleton. The tour guide gave a shriek and jumped over the ropes to get to the boy.
"No, no. We mustn't touch ancient skeletons or we might get ourselves dirty. And I don't think our parents would like that."
The guide walked back with the little boy under his arm. The mother was fuming, but the tour guide didn't take any notice as he handed the child back to his mother.
"Now let's leave the giant boar and head over to what looks like an irrigation system."
Tsuta began to follow the group, but as she passed the boar's head she stopped. Hotaru looked at her quizzically, but Tsuta just waved her on. The eyes of the boar seemed to glow, even though the tissues dissolved long ago. She lifted the ropes up and held up her VIP pass as a guard gave her a dirty look. Carefully, not to disturb the dirt, she kneeled down by the head and gently touched the bone. Once her fingers touched the bone, a red-hot aura surrounded the dead boar. She quickly pulled her hand back scorching her index and middle fingers. Tiny worms seemed to rise up from the decaying bone and form a shape on the skeleton.
A passing guard gave Tsuta an odd look, but he just shrugged his shoulders and passed by. He did not see the black parasites merging with the skeleton.
As soon as the worms appeared they dissolved leaving the burning red aura. Tsuta pulled back from the boar's spellbinding gripe on her. She got up and was about rejoin the tour group, when the boar spoke.
"Disgusting creatures. All humans are disgusting. My wraith has come to end as all of my kind has."
Tsuta gasped. Even though she had seen many things in her long life; she had never seen something as horrific as this.
"Your kind? Who is your kind?"
"Foolish mortal! Your blood has revived me for the time being. You do not carry the red blood of humans, which I lust for. My kind were the ancient gods of this land. All humans on this isle once worshipped my kind. But their lust for power and greed drove them away from us. Thanks to that disgusting woman and her nauseating metal destroyed me."
"Metal? Iron. Were you killed by iron?"
"So humans of this era are not as foolish as I thought they would be. The hatred of a demon burns inside my decayed belly. I long to fill it with the blood and flesh of humans. My rampage only lasted a few weeks, but I had my revenge for the forest."
"Forest? Tatari-gami you make no sense. I understand how my powers revived you, but what do you want?"
"My name does not sing out in the heavens as it should. I remain a lifeless skeleton, so I may be gawked and stared at."
"Names hold power. Please tell me who you are?"
"Inoshishi!"
The aura brightened as the dead god yelled his name. His hollow eyes glowed blood red, they locked on Tsuta. She tried to pull away from the menacing eyes, but her willpower could not break free. The red blood of the Tatari-gami's eyes gathered in the center, the glowing red light jumped out of the eye sockets and shot into the Senshi's eyes, making her blind. Her inner self screamed in pain. Tsuta was paralyzed. The red aura spread throughout her body making it glow with an eerie red light. A bright flash of light flared all over the excavation site, blinding Tsuta once more.
As the light faded and Tsuta regained her sight, she noticed that the boar was gone and in its place was grass and nothing more. She looked around and realized that her civilian clothes were replaced by her serafuku.
'Where am I?' she thought.
She turned around, to her surprise the Emishi village was not only there, but it seemed to have come alive. People walked in and out of the huts, a woman cooked on a fire, while in the distance some girls were harvesting a crop. Sailor Sirius noticed that they dressed too accurately to be actors mimicking the Emishi people. Sirius walked towards the village, but a giant red elk carrying a young man dressed in a blue tunic and gray leggings distracted her. He headed toward the girls in the field, who greeted him. The Senshi also noticed a watchtower in the distance, she saw the youth heading towards the tower.
All the birds in the trees and sky suddenly got quiet. Sirius looked in the direction of the forest and quickly ran towards them. She stopped, when she saw the young man climbing the watchtower. He was talking to an old man, who seemed to be in shock. Sirius ran to the tower, she listened carefully to their conversation.
"Ji-ji what can it be?" the youth asked.
"I don't know. It's not human," the man replied.
"Back at the village, Hii-sama is calling for everyone to return."
"It comes," the old man whispered. "It's a Tatari-gami!"
The trees in front of the watchtower collapsed to the rampaging Tatari-gami. A creature with six legs and two large blood red eyes poked out from the mass of black and maroon worms, which slithered all over the body.
"Tatari-gami?!" he gasped. "Yakkuru, run!"
The red elk was paralyzed fear in as the cursed god knocked down the tower. The youth shot an arrow to get the elk's attention. Yakkuru was startled by the arrow and was able to escape. The youth grabbed the old man and jumped into the trees narrowly escaping the crash of the tower. The branches of the trees rustled as the youth's head appeared amongst the leaves.
"It's heading towards the village!" he yelled.
Sirius was surprised that the youth didn't warn her. The Tatari-gami was heading straight for her, she didn't have enough time to escape. When the demon was just a few inches from her, the Senshi jumped up and yelled one of her attacks.
"Infinite Asterisk REBILLION!"
The powerful beam of energy shot from her hands. The attack was on a direct collision course with the demon. Just as it was about to hit her target, the attack passed through the Tatari-gami without even harming one of the worms that plagued its body.
"What the..." Sirius gasped.
"It's heading towards the village! It's going to attack!" the youth yelled.
"Ashitaka. Don't touch the Tatari-gami or you will be cursed as well," the old man stated.
The youth bounded out of the trees giving no reply to the old man. He called for the red elk, Yakkuru, they both dashed away . Ashitaka rode in front of the Tatari-gami, he tried to calm the demon but he wasn't having much luck. Sirius ran behind the demon, trying to catch up with Ashitaka.
"Calm! Calm down! Surely you are to all appearances a mountain god of name, but why do you rampage like this?" Ashitaka asked.
The senshi, Ashitaka, and Tatari-gami were getting closer to the fields. The demon noticed three girls trying to escape. Sirius noticed, "Watch out!"
"Obake!" one of the girls yelled.
"To the village!" another said.
"Stop! Why do you attack our village?! Stop it! Calm down!" once more Ashitaka tried to calm the rampaging god.
One of the girls fell and one stayed behind to help her. There wasn't any time to escape, so the girl pulled out a sword to defend her friend.
"Kaya!" Ashitaka screamed. He pulled out an arrow and shot it into the Tatari-gami's blood-red eye. The demon howled in pain, it lashed back stopping for a brief moment.
"Hayaku!" Ashitaka yelled at the girls.
They nodded and Kaya helped the girl run to the village. Askitaka tried to keep himself between the village and Tatari-gami. Suddenly the worms on the demon's body exploded. Sirius, who is right behind the Tatari-gami, gave a small scream and covered her face hoping to shield herself from the black worms. Although Yakkaru galloped away from the explosion, Ashitaka's arm touched the worms. Sirius regained her self-confidence and charged at the demon, before she could do anything Ashitaka shot an arrow in the Tatari-gami's forehead, making it collapse. The worms fall from the body of a giant boar and they quickly disintegrated into the ground. Sirius came to a halt, taking deep breaths to regain her strength.
"He beat it!" one man cried.
"Ani-sama!" Kaya yelled.
"Get Hii-sama, hayaku!"
Ashitaka fell of Yakkuru from the stabbing pain in his arm. The silver senshi slowly walked up to him. Once more Kaya cried, "Ani-sama!" she tried to help.
"Kaya, don't touch! It's not an ordinary wound."
"Ashitaka is wounded. Where is Hii-sama?" one man said.
A small old lady riding on a man's back appeared. She carried a brown jug in her hand, which Sirius noticed was a water flask.
"Everyone, you mustn't get any closer," Hii-sama said.
"Hii-sama!" Kaya cried.
The woman handed Kaya the flask and told her to poor the water slowly over the wound. She then walked over to the boar and bowed deeply and said:
"Though I know not from whence thou came, rampaging god, I would humbly and respectfully speak to thee. We will build a mound on this place, and observe a festival in honor of thy departed spirit. Forget thine anger, and be calmed."
Sailor Sirius looked at Hii-sama as she bowed once more to the god. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she recognized the god as Inoshishi.
The boar god spoke his final words, "You damned filthy humans. You will know well my suffering and hatred......" Inoshishi looked at Sirius, "One can look and see, but not touch."
The flesh on the boar god decayed and disappeared into the ground, leaving a rotted skeleton and startled villagers.
Suddenly a bright light blinded Sailor Sirius, the scene of the dead boar and villagers washed away. When Sirius opened her eyes, she looked around to find herself at the excavation site.
'What was that,' she thought. She noticed that her serafuku was gone and once more she was in her civilian clothes.
"Now you know why my name does not sing out in the heavens. Be careful of what the past may tell you, Senshi!" Inoshishi's eyes glowed once more, before they turned to lifeless holes in skull once more.
"Tsuta-chan!" Hotaru ran up to her friend. "Are you okay? You have been standing there for the past twenty minutes."
"I'm fine, I just felt like I have been in another time."
"I think you've been in the sun to long. Let's go join the group again."
The two friends headed towards the tour group, which was on the last exhibit. They passed a tent, where an old man was studying some pottery. He glanced up at Tsuta and Hotaru as they walked by. He gasped and the piece of pottery he was holding dropped and shattered into pieces. Tsuta looked at him, his mouth was ajar, he stuttered one word "Mononoke-hime..."

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